Review of RoboCop 3 (1993) by Brian F — 07 Jul 2012

I heard nothing but bad things about Robocop 3, so I wasn't really expecting anything great. For one reason or another, I never got around to seeing the film until it was playing on one of my movie channels on tv.

So I figured, I might as well. I have to say, those people were right. Robocop 3 is pretty bad. It tried to return to the themes of the first one, some prinicpal actors came back, and even Basil Poledouris came back to do the score, but the film still came up short.

The big common complaints seem to be that the violence and mature content was toned down to secure a PG-13 rating, and Peter Weller does not return as Robocop. I didn't think Robert John Burke was half bad as the character.

He kind of resembles Weller if you ask me, and maybe that was the reason he was chosen as the replacement. Still, I missed Weller. He's the only Robocop for most fans. In addition to the toned down violence and the absence of Weller, the movie became very campy.

Japanese sword-wielding ninja cyborgs? Robocop having a gun arm and flying around on a jetpack? Sounds like they were trying very hard to sell toys. The acting for this film is nothing special, the special effects are about the same as the previous films but done in a worse way, and the killing of Anne Lewis was hard to swallow.

But I think the worst part about this movie is that it's boring. I honestly wanted to change the channel half-way through, but forced myself to keep watching so I could actuallly say I've seen the movie and be able to appropriately review it.

There was just nothing memorable about it at all and it's easily forgettable. I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone, although some younger kids might find it enjoyable. If you're interested in Robocop, just watch the first two.

This one is passable.